In one of the craziest elections in American history, Barack Obama overcame a lack of experience, a funny name, two candidates who are political institutions and the racial divide to become the 44th President of the United States

William F. Buckley, 1925-2008

Sam Falk / The New York Times / Redux

He was the beginning  the patriarch, the "pope"  of modern American conservatism. With the founding of the National Review in 1955, Buckley hoped to inject conservatism with a sense of urgency, literally to "stand athwart history yelling 'Stop!'" He succeeded, ultimately ushering in the era of Reagan and Bush squared. And whether it was in the Review or on his long-running television show Firing Line, Buckley reveled in the verbal spar. Of course he did. Even when he was wrong, he was right.